Why Not Iraq?
Michael Costello gets it wrong, point by point. He claims the Iraq war only marginally increases Britain and Australia’s profile with the terrorists because the U.S. was under attack since 1983 and Australians were killed in Bali in 2002, prior to the Iraq invasion. These are valid points, if not precisely within the scope of the overall situation, but he then goes on to claim that the argument is that Iraq is “the cause of the terrorist threat.” No, that’s not what anyone’s saying. We’re saying going into Iraq has increased the scope of the problem. Where we were engaged in the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, we’re now engaged in an effort that has increased the recruiting power of that bloody organization. We’re not ignoring the messages from the terrorists, their claims of struggle against “crusaders,” we’re taking them very seriously, especially since we’re hearing more of this kind of rhetoric since going into Iraq. And nobody says we’d be “safe” if we’d stayed out, just that the situation might now be different, that we might be seeing few terrorist attacks instead of more and in places they weren’t previously happening, like London. This isn’t the Cold War, and Cold War comparisons don’t hold up, including deliberately misconstruing the argument over U.S. involvement with Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion there twenty years ago. It was the U.S. pull-out that allowed the Taliban to seize control and to make Afghanistan a haven for bin Laden’s training camps and planning operations, not support for the mujahideen, even though Osama was among them then. And there’s no head-in-the-sand argument here that ignoring the terrorists will make them go away, just an honest acknowledgement that the Iraq war is indeed “fostering a new generation of terrorists,” so the logical implication is just more dishonesty on Costello’s part. The only honest part of his editorial is the last paragraph, but making the rest of the argument against Iraq into nonsense is just “utter foolishness.” But what else can we expect from the Murdoch press?

Security
More bombs in London, but two suspects arrested. That’s anti-terror law enforcement in action, although the police want more power yet. But frightening as these latest attacks were, calm and reason should prevail. Our societies have plenty of power, and not just in legal mechanisms, so great care should be taken in how we change, or if we change, our responses to hatred. International cooperation is working to good effect; let’s enhance that. Searching backbacks may seem prudent; it will certainly be an inconvenience, but there are still expectations of civil liberties to be managed. Each step we take toward infringing existing rights steepens the pitch of the “slippery slope.”

Leaps and Boundaries
Like many others, last night as I looked up at the nearly full moon, I thought briefly about the space race and Apollo 11. The promised wonders of the universe never seemed closer then, but they so much further now, despite Mars landing photos regularly updated in the pages of National Geographic. Looking at the Google map, marked for where the lunar landings were, it’s maddening that so very little of the moon was ever explored, let alone that we have no outpost there. We’ve got people holed up in Antarctica year-round, but otherwise stay as close to home as we can. The spirit of adventure and exploration seems to have shrunk.

(And look: Scotty's dead. What a strange coincidence.)

Who
I’d like to hear an actually persuasive argument in favor of a national ID card on the grounds that it would help counter terrorism. I’ve heard some people say the London bombers would have had one but that isn’t an argument against such cards, but the people saying that don’t go on to explain their thinking (if you could call it that – what’s an argument without an argument? Just orders.), so I’ve yet to hear anything particularly compelling. The idea’s been mooted in the U.S. and Britain as well as Australia more than once in recent years, and it’s usually shouted down or allowed to pass away quietly, often on privacy grounds. I do hear various authorities say that privacy’s not an issue, after all we let credit card companies collect more personal data than’s being suggested here, but that’s not terribly valid argumentation. Yes, credit card companies and other commercial ventures collect information, and we hand it over and end up on mailing lists and getting sales calls at dinner: the plain fact here is that we often don’t realize the extent and meaning of what we’re signing up for. What’s being touted in a national ID is a centralized government database of . . . essentially whatever the administration in power at the time or subsequently decides to collect. Interestingly, I have heard suggestions that in addition to my Medicare number and my tax file number and my driver’s license information (no, not yet; someday, after I’ve had the money and time for lessons), and my passport and visa, I could also have my banking and credit details encoded onto the little magnetic strip, or the embedded chip, or whatever. After the RFID-embedded passport flap in the U.S., the new Australia Card may not have an auto-detection feature, but it is already starting to sound like a lot more information than I want any government to have on file for me. I already know what the banks and others do with my personal data, what happens when the Feds have my medical history and it gets hacked, or passed along for research, or sold? Believing that bureaucracy is the principal safeguard over government-held data, can the trust barrier be overcome? Is a national ID just that one step too far closer to “papers” teutonic-accented agents will demand as they buttonhole me on my way to the train station? We had these scares over social security numbers in the U.S. when that program was initiated, and despite the abuses – retailers collecting the number illegally, for example, one of the key factors in the rise of identity theft – the effect overall has been mild enough. And what about national security and fighting terrorism? Is there really a link, or can we only expect to identify the presence of individuals or of forged documents? Will the cards include known associates? Political affiliation? Is there really any hope of these things being useful ahead of the crime? You’ll have to convince me, because right now it just sounds like another way to help reduce civil liberties.

Non-Abuse
On the assumption that the Navy report can be trusted, I’m most pleased to hear that David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib weren’t abused at Guantanamo. John Howard’s suggestion, however, that we mustn’t forget that the allegations against them were “very serious” – training with al Qaeda and joining that group post-September 11 – don’t excuse their treatment or, indeed, have anything to do with whether they were abused, especially, in Mr. Habib’s case, including rendition to Egypt for torture outside U.S. jurisdiction. The reports in last week’s New Yorker, where the participation of health care professionals in “breaking” prisoners, using torture-resistance training methods, was presented with disturbing corroboration from within the military, suggests that the Navy report would only ever have reached the conclusion it did, howsoever “cynical” that may be. If the methods are official practice, then they are not abuse, are they? Nevertheless, we’ve gone on from there to Abu Ghraib, and the military’s physicians and psychologists may be exceeding their ethical boundaries under new directives. This makes the report rather less than reliable as the basis on which to judge the treatment of prisoners.

Compromise?
Who wants a compromise on the Patriot Act? It’s one of the worst pieces of legislation ever enacted, developed and put in place by Ashcroft to entrench intrusive police-state powers in the Federal Government, exploiting a moment of fear for a power-grab. I suppose I’ll settle for an extension – nothing permanent, mind you – but I’d rather see the whole thing expire according to its original sunset provisions.

Ghosts
For a few years back in my first NYC apartment in Queens, I used to experience episodes of sleep paralysis. I’d have the sensation of someone sitting next to me on the bed, invisible, oppressive, although not malevolent, and I would be unable to move or speak, certain, however, that if I could do either, the spectre would leave. Usually, after what seemed an incredible effort, I would be able to move, to roll over, and the spell would be broken. Because I was sleeping in an apartment full of second-hand furniture, including the bed, wherein someone may have actually died, and where the previous tenancy of the flat may have been suspicious, it seemed perfectly reasonable to believe there was indeed some undispelled ectoplasmic entity hanging about, but I was younger then and more inclined towards such fancifulness, in addition to which, I’d never heard of “night crushers” or the old hag. The phenomenon stopped after a while and hasn’t since recurred, about the time I moved to Manhattan. Perhaps my recollection of the timing, however, is just another mental lapse, and it had actually stopped earlier, as inexplicably as it started.

Howard Channels Mao
Yes, it’s time for Chairman Howard’s great leap forward. Those damn baby boomers are getting older, and as they age they’re getting persnickity, demanding things like health care and retirement security. In order to ensure that every Australian does his bit (not her bit; women need to stay home and have babies), the PM is relying on a new generation of wage slaves, workers who won’t balk at working unpaid overtime or giving up some of their holidays. It’s never been clearer what he’s after, and if you haven’t guessed, it’s to reduce your pay and your ability to obtain working conditions favorable to a work-life balance. What’s the term here? Sea changer? Forget it, your country needs you.

Work or Stay Home
I’ve seen the ACTU ads where the woman is called in to work and threatened with dismissal when she asks, “what about my kids?” I know the ads are meant to do exactly what ads usually do: manipulate my thinking over Howard’s industrial relations changes. (He calls them “reforms,” but I’m not falling for that. I’ve worked in human resources long enough to understand what he’s really selling.) Now, after the unions’ ads, the government has pitched in their own sell, with full-page advertisements in the major papers extolling the benefits and attempting to refute the claims made against their proposals. If you’ve been willing to buy the Howard line all along, or got your back up against the unions’ claims, or just don’t know what to think anymore, Ross Gitins has a handy analysis of the current state of the argument that’s worth a look. Before you sit back and let Howard’s newly increased majority go to his head, have a look. You may not suffer, but others will, and your turn may come before you know it. Block Howard’s Industrial Relations Reform.

Tarnation
This documentary feature probably isn't going to feature in the next Academy Awards, but it probably should. Largely complied from old home-movie footage, it's a small, personal story, but nevertheless deeply affecting and wonderfully executed. Tarnation relies on imagery even more than images to convey its story, creating a sensual cinematic experience unusually in a documentary, let alone a (auto)biographical film. None of the people are otherwise remarkable, but the movie's tag line - "Your greatest creation is the life you lead" - is realized. These are remarkable people whose greatness lies in how ordinary they are. Tarnation is one of the best 90-minute movie experiences I've had in a while.

After our evening of Australian Film Commission promotional shorts, we had a leisurely dinner out at our favourite Lebanese restaurant and then hailed a cab for the trip home. Even before we had opened our mouths to request our destination, our driver told us the news. While my first thought was for my friend, S., he’s up near Birmingham, and out of the immediate range of the attacks. Through him, we have acquaintances, however, in London, and of course many of the people I work with and whom M. and I know travel or have family and friends there, so unlike some other parts of the world where violence is nearly more expected than not, we have cause for concern and care, and the immediacy of the danger is greater than it might otherwise be. And while it is not unexpected, it is still unanticipated. Britain has a long history with terrorism, and seems to be coping very well with the situation, but they and the rest of Europe have been expected targets since 2001. Surely participation in the Iraq war has raised Great Britain’s profile among the barbarians who have now acted so brutally, but only insofar as other, neighboring nations were perhaps less prominent for not joining Bush’s coalition. Preparedness and alert levels only take us so far, however; little could have been done to prevent these attacks. Even in a country where the culture of suspicion for the unattended parcel has long been ingrained it was possible for terrorist bombers to act. Expanded police powers, such as those under the USA Patriot Act, those granted to ASIO, and those not long ago debated in Britain’s Parliament, were of no value, as anyone whose mind was unclouded by fear or revenge fantasies could have told you. These attacks, as much as they represent the savage hatred of the perpetrators and their own irrational fears, also shows the failures of our present course, the lack of imagination at work at the highest levels of government. The war on terrorism cannot be conducted as tank battles and air raids; this isn’t World War II. While states may be opposed in such a fashion, ideologies are not similarly overthrown. We suffer and will suffer more for our continued failure to address the root causes, for treating the symptoms and not the disease.

Can’t Steer
Can’t do it in Iraq, can’t do it on a bike. I’m glad the cop’s all right, but the story does remind me that bicyclists often write into the paper over the riding-on-the-sidewalk debate saying, “I always wear a helmet.” This doesn’t help the people they run over, of course. Bush, who apparently didn’t learn to ride a bike when he was a kid, was also wearing a helmet, although I might have wished for something to knock some sense into him. Ride safe, kids.

This Will Play Well with the Base
End farm subsidies, says Bush, to the European Union member nations, and the U.S. will reduce theirs. Fine, says I, although recognizing that there are still small-holders out there likely to lose everything as a result, at least insofar as they are forced to sell out to the conglomerates. But if we’re going to help the Third World nations build their economies to feed themselves and grow industrially, this is part of what has to happen. We might want to work on keeping rapacious multinational corporations from exploiting the situation, however, whether in the U.S., the EU, or Africa, Asia, et al., unless we feel we’re ready for genetically modified food. Free trade, like communism, works well in theory, but in practice sometimes causes more harm than good. We haven’t heard much of a “giant sucking sound” as promised from NAFTA, but these things are more incremental than immediate, a condition that is all too easily exploited in the rhetoric that flies around in the lead-up to implementation. As much as we cannot afford not to act, we cannot afford to act rashly.

I do wonder just the same how this announcement will be received in all those “red” states, where “moral values” were the purported basis for Bush’s majority.

The Fault Is in Our Selves
Or maybe not, when "Deep Impact" drops a washing machine-sized probe into the comet Tempel 1. It won't change anything, really, not the trajectory of the comet or it's five-and-a-half-year cycle through the solar system, so don't expect anything untoward in your horoscope this month. I'm not expecting Gamera or Ghidohra, either.

Bush's America
In Bush's America, torture may be authorized by the President, extra-legal prison camps are acceptable, and secret detention on ships at sea is taking good care of prisoners. Where are the congressional investigations? If a Democratic President had done these things, there'd be an impeachment underway already.

True?
Then an investigation is warranted, because he wouldn’t know in the usual course of business.

Tylenol
The Mars recall reminds me, as it would anyone (well, anyone old enough), of the last big product tampering incident, and I’ve got to hand it to MasterFoods in how they’re handling it. Good public relations, responsible, forthright. I don’t eat the stuff, but if I did, I’d feel just fine doing so once the all-clear is sounded.

Barnabas
One of the Twelve Apostles has gone the way of all, um, stone. These natural limestone monoliths have lost from their company before and will again, of course, although I’m still sort of regretful that I have yet to travel along the Great Ocean Road to see them. Meanwhile, it does bring to mind some nice New Testament thoughts, like: must have been Judas, or upon a different kind of rock, and so forth.

Brought to You by
Although previously committed to allowing the 13 root servers to pass into the hands of an international internet control body, the U.S. has now decided to keep control itself for now. It’s an understandable move, what with having created the internet in the first place – and as a defence department service – and faced with the variety of security threats from terrorists and criminals (and, naturally, because SkyNet is really the internet), so I’m not overly critical of this non-development. It’s long past being a U.S.-centric service, however, increasingly the domain (can I still say that, or is it confusing) of commercial enterprises to near-exclusivity. Educational institutions and charities use the internet much the same way as Citibank and Morgan Stanley and so on, and webloggers and people posting cat photos (or combinations thereof) aren’t so populous or popular as to make much difference. Already much of the scientific community and internal governmental operations, particularly in defence and intelligence, are using separate versions, so it really comes to a question of regulation and revenue. If a model can be developed which generates taxes and which can also be policed, there’d be some incentive to let go, but not yet.

Appointments
What with the last few Federal judgeships doled out to ideologues, it’s not hard to imagine Bush tapping someone to replace Sandra Day O’Connor who’ll push the balance of the Supreme Court where only the graduating class of Patrick Henry College really wants to see it. We can hope that he’ll listen to the conservative calls to forego Alberto Gonzales as his nominee, but who else is up? And looking back, not only Presidents but the public at large and the pundits have sometimes been surprised by the performance of SCOTUS appointees, Sandy included, a Reagan appointment who didn’t pan out as the disaster predicted. On the other hand, Thomas has lived up to his foreseen assessment as the worst of the present court, if only because Scalia’s smarter.

8
We didn’t watch much more than the news reports of the Live 8 concerts, but that doesn’t mean we don’t support Sir Bob and aid to Africa. We do what we can when we can, and wish that was true of more people – and more governments, for that matter. Aid to the Third World and Africa in particular often turns out to be money poured into a gaping abyss, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helping and isn’t necessary. There’s much more to the analysis than that. First, much of what’s promised is never delivered – look at the Tsunami promises and then look at what’s actually been spent so far, for example. And certainly, better aid, too, is called for, such as opening the trade barriers and assisting in set-ups like the Global Fund for Women. There are many ways of helping, and Sir Bob’s pleas shouldn’t be derided or denigrated out of hand. People claiming that aid is useless without the reform of corrupt governments or that rock stars aren’t in a position to lecture anyone or aren’t giving away their own millions are just creating excuses for themselves to do nothing. The rock stars are giving away money, just like many rich people already do, and if they have used their leisure time to study and reflect on conditions outside their immediate environment, they deserve a hearing. Reforming corruption is undeniably necessary, but isn’t going to happen quickly if there is no relief from poverty. Sir Bob’s right: “don’t let anyone tell you this doesn’t work”: it does, if only because we’re all talking about it. And let’s keep in mind, Plan B is that there is no Plan B.

It's Your Party
The Democratic Party has a new look to their website. It's very up-to-date looking.

No Nukes
How are the nuclear missiles in the U.S. stockpile tasked? Do we aim them still at Russia and Eastern Europe, or are they exclusively targeted at China? Do we have any preset for Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, France, or any other country with nuclear weapons technology? Is there really a need for new nukes?

With the end of the Cold War, many of us expected the “peace dividend” we never got to include at least a substantial reduction in the nuclear weapons ensiled around the country, maybe even the golden age when we wouldn’t have any at all and the atomic threat would largely have ended. With China, however, maintaining its stockpile, neither was going to happen right away, and the threat from various so-called rogue nations having increased, the excuse to keep ours continues. Of course, there’s little deterrent apparently, at least to terrorists, who very likely would detonate a radiologic device just about anywhere they could, if they could.

The threat today is more generally considered to be from unsecured radioactive material and weapons technology making its way into the hands of non-state actors more so than from the rogue nations, at least for the U.S. North Korea threatens Japan, Pakistan and India threaten each other, Israel threatens the Arab Middle East, who would themselves threaten Israel if they could develop the capacity to do so. France just blows off nukes to annoy everyone else, especially Greenpeace and people in the Pacific islands.

The space aliens aren’t coming anytime soon, it seems, and even with what we’ve got it would take some doing to address any asteroid collision problem, so what are the new weapons being proposed for? For use in “conventional” warfare. The purpose would be to attack and destroy “hardened” targets, deep underground bunkers and so forth, especially built to defy even the weightiest explosives we can presently deliver.

This is, presently, the way the world is addressing its problems, just prudent. Of course it would be better to improve the world, improve international relations, work for peace, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone at the head of any nation I can think of offhand who makes that the first priority. Yeah, maybe the Scandinavians, and various little countries around Europe. The world, however, is too small a place for such small, short-sighted thinking, and we’d be better off if we invested our efforts and our money in projects other than building a better bomb. Nationalism is pretty much an outmoded concept now, causing more problems than it’s fixing, as it’s usually done. Maybe we should be forging inclusive relationships outside geographic and political boundaries that aren’t purely trade-based or militarily opportunistic. That way there’d be less to be afraid of and fewer places we’d want to nuke.

Tomorrow’s History
And you can read that headline as a contraction or as a possessive, either way, as of July 1, selfishness will begin its rule in Australia in a way not seen for more than a generation. With control of the Senate, John Howard will push forward with his industrial labor relations alterations, gutting the power of unions, and making a fair wage and a fair go less likely (not to mention further marginalizing the Labor Party). Don Watson’s right: it’s about greed, the same greed that only listened to Howard chanting “interest rates, interest rates” last October and gave no thought to the future beyond the term of their mortgages, the same greed that has pushed away from awards and collective bargaining to AWA’s and individual contracts. This is the culmination of ignorance, and while the ignorant will snicker and sneer, secure in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen, at least to them, slowly and surely, their rights in the workplace will disappear, one worker at a time, first to the guy down the street, then to a neighbor, then maybe their son or daughter getting a first job out of school or university, and then to themselves, until they finally see what it means to abandon the principles that built modern Australia. When Australia’s got American-style private health and a decimated safety net, it’ll be even harder to fight back to what was achieved over the last 25-30 years, if it’s possible at all.

Recommendations
While I’m at it, trying to generate a cent or two from spending my time on weblogging, I’ve signed up as a Barnes & Noble affiliate. Now, I really like Amazon’s wishlist feature, and I put stuff up there that I want to keep track of, but they give most of their political donations to the Republicans, so I can’t in good conscience spend my money there buying books online. Instead, when I link to books, I’ll use a B&N link, and if anyone actually uses that to buy something, not only will a company that supports Democrats be rewarded, so will I, and everyone – assuming you like the book you buy – will be happy. If B&N put up a wishlist, I’ll move over there entirely; otherwise, if you wanna know what I’d like for Christmas, let me know, and I’ll add you to the wishlist list. (I got the idea from Rebecca Blood, who’s an Amazon Associate, and was recently discussing disclosure issues.)

Media Profile
I post and post and while my profile sinks ever lower I realize Microsoft doesn't want me for a rainbow, I mean 'blogger. This is not to say, of course, that I wouldn't 'blog for them, but I only heard about this accidentally (because I have no journalistic ambitions). But the Google Adsense ads aren't going to get me US$100 even this year, let alone any kind of regular income, and the various survey services and so forth to which I subscribe and respond faithfully are garnering even less. So, hey, MSN: I'll write about Tom Cruise and what kind of frocks get worn at the red carpet events, and I'll even be nice; sign me up. What's all this bandwidth for? Pictures of the cat?

Look for the Union Label
I remember the ILGWU song from when I was a kid and the women would promote their union in television ads, and as many times as I heard stories of union corruption and misuse of power, I heard the stories of the struggles they made to benefit all workers. Power relationships are always troubled, especially when the balance of power between labor and management is weighted too far in favor of one or the other side. In the case of unions, this too often resulted in infiltration by organized crime, while on the other side of the equation, you got sweatshops and moving factories into Third World labor markets and CEO’s lining their own pockets at the expense of the company and its workers. Government, to the degree that it has attempted to ensure fairness in the relationship, has instituted various controls to make such problems less attractive to the greedy, whether by enacting laws or pursuing investigations and prosecutions of offenders. For the Ayn Randers and the selfish individuals over the years espousing what’s now called the neo-con line, unions are always corrupt and must be abolished, while insider trading and limitations on executive power are unwarranted government intrusions. This is the kind of thinking that’s put George Bush and John Howard into office. While in the U.S. Bush is busy reorganizing how the Department of Labor defines overtime eligibility and planning how Social Security can be put into the hands of stock market investment banks, in Australia, John Howard will on Friday take majority control of the Senate and begin his push to alter the industrial relations controls that have served to protect workers for many years now, an agenda he’s been pushing since at least 1996, but can only now realize. Many here among the Howard supporters will tell you that unions are out-dated and that the Labor party has lost any purpose in the political landscape, but while the latter is true insofar as Labor needs to assert itself in the public policy discourse, the former is only true to the degree that you do not believe in a fair wage, an assertion Howard’s minions would dispute, because to them, fair is what they get, not what anyone else is paid. They disgust me, and if you, too, deplore their attitudes and actions, there’s more you can do about it. Find out what’s happening, stay up-to-date, and make sure you’re heard: The Last Weekend, at Sydney Olympic Park, 11 a.m., Sunday, 7 August (gotta love the caricature of Howard in the poster – are those stink lines or is he supposed to be radioactive?).

Why is Robert Novak Free?
Now that the Supreme Court has decided to continue its partisanship by declining to review the civil contempt cases against Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper, free speech is effectively under assault in the U.S. This case should never have gotten this far, but if Miller and Cooper go to jail, how is it that the man who publicly revealed Valerie Plame’s cover is not only not being compelled to reveal his sources, and not going to jail, but isn’t even under investigation?

The Goebbels Golem
Bush is taking Rove off the leash, and he's making the most of it, fomenting hatred with every syllable uttered, now more public than ever. Tim Dunlop's spinning Rove's newly raised profile as a boon for the Democrats, and I suppose he's got a point. If Rove continues to spew his bile directly, he may be seen more for what he is: a hate-filled propagandist, bent on the destruction of every kindness, every freedom, and - to get all Freudian - probably because he never had the benefit of them himself. Like the monster of Kabbalist myth, he may now prove as destructive to his creators as he has to those they've seen as oppressors. It couldn't happen to anyone better.

Miyazaki Mass Transit
Like something out of Spirited Away, Japan’s newest bullet train features cat’s ears. Yes, they’re brakes, but only Japan could produce an anime train.

Getting It
“South Park Conservatives” is a hilarious misapprehension of satire that just goes to disprove every bit of shallow analysis in Brian Anderson’s book of that title. He argues the show, in sending up political correctness, Hollywood bleeding hearts, and air-brained educators, represents a new respectability for conservative values. He’s wrong, but only because he deliberately ignores the parts of such entertainments that equally skewer people of his own political persuasion, which are as plentiful and as well-targeted. I don’t know the individual political allegiances of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but they don’t seem particularly devoted to the “moral values” that are supposed to have put Bush in office any more than they are to any other dogma. Instead, like many other of the “liberal elite” working in entertainment, they strive to be humorous, to be comic, and get more laughs, and higher ratings, as a result. Let’s keep in mind that these shows are only entertainment, not anybody’s manifesto, so when Richard Gere’s earnestness is lampooned, we laugh just as much as when the (ahem) "gun enthusiasts" are.

Raptor Attack
Peter Costello recently spent a little time foaming at the mouth in one of the more blatant revisionist episodes of the Liberal Party's efforts to demonize the left, historically and currently. Bob Hawke has set him straight. As the locals say, Good on ya, Bob.

At the Sandringham
One of the venues that hosted Sydney’s independent music scene in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, the Sando, as it’s known, was, along with so many other hotels (by which I mean what would be a pub elsewhere), taken over by the pokies, poker slot machines, that is, eventuating a bit of a musical doldrums. Evenutally, however (and I couldn’t say when, but before I got here, anyway), and again like a few other of the one-time hotspots, the Sando found a bit of space where they could host a live band of an evening. And that’s where we spent part of our evening last night, upstairs at the Sandringham, listening to Sandrine (no relation). She’s in the process of developing her next album, so the gig was just a warm-up, but she’s got a good, slightly raspy voice, with a good bit of blues phrasing, and a really nice way with a lyric. We got to know her a bit when M. cast her as the lead in her 3-minute screen assignment for Project Greenlight, after hearing her first album, which we like rather a lot. Knowing she was working on new material, this was our first opportunity to hear her perform live, and even though it was a solo outing, alternating between guitar and Wurlitzer, it was a satisfying evening, all up. The new material sounds good, and there was no disappointment in any of the songs off the old record. Once she’s touring, though, with a band behind her, we’ll have to go again for the full show, which will surely be that much more, and more likely in a more amenable setting.

Prizes
Andrew McGahan’s newest novel, The White Earth, has won the Miles Franklin Award, and I’m here to tell you it deserves it. I’ve been telling everyone I know around here they’ve got to read it, though nobody’s taken me up on the recommendation. I hadn’t seen the short list previously, but I’ll keep an eye out for and try to eventually read the other 5: Salt Rain, by Sarah Armstrong, The Submerged Cathedral, by Charlotte Wood, The Gift of Speed, by Steven Carroll, and Sixty Lights, by Gail Jones. I’ve never seen anything by any of these others, unlike McGahan, whose novel Praise I’d read and the movie adaptation of which I’d seen, so I will still approach with caution.

Memepsychosis
It’s pretty much pointless for me to participate in the music meme making its way around, but if the Counsellor’s going to make me part of that circuit, who am I to refuse? He’s the elder brother, after all.

1. Total Number of Records (CD, vinyl, cassette): like Bill, at this point I’m measuring in meters rather than actually counting. Although some years ago I did catalog everything other than 45 rpm singles into a very basic cross-referenced database using MS-Access, there’s been a fair bit of change since then in all formats, largely as a result of integrating the remnants of M.’s damaged-in-storage collection, not to mention the intermittent acquisitions via gifts and have-to-have or it’s-on-sale purchases. So: about 5 to 6 meters of CDs, which probably tops 500, half a meter of 7” singles, 2 to 3 meters of 12” LP’s, and no prerecorded cassettes worth mentioning. It’s a lot of prog-rock, new wave, and post-punk, with a decent sampling of jazz, country, and a little blues.

2. Total Volume of Music on My Computer: damn little. When Project Greenlight awarded M. an iBook for making the top 10, I started downloading a few CDs, managing in the end to copy across about 50-70 CDs. Then Microsoft signed on as a sponsor, so we had to give back the Apple in exchange for a Windows workstation, and we’re trying to sell that. The Powerbook’s got a few albums on it, largely in conjunction with M.’s screenplay development. A couple gig, maybe.

3. Last Record Purchased: I really don’t remember. It was probably a gift, rather than a must-have. Maybe Nick Cave’s double Abattoir Blues & The Lyre of Orpheus, which I think M. picked up around Christmas.

4. Last Record Listened to: By and large these days, we listen to music while we’re doing the household chores, so it’s often the Marvelettes or Dusty in Memphis or something else lively, fairly upbeat, sing-along-ish, and otherwise acting as an incentive to M., who deals with that end of the apartment. Since I’m running the vacuum, I don’t listen much. I put Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road on not long ago while M. was out and I preferred something other than mindless television.

5. Five Records/Songs I Listen to or Are Meaningful to Me: It’s not so much that I listen a lot to any of these, but that they are records that have resonance from the point in time when I first heard them. There are many others, of course, some more obvious than others, and there is a certain snob appeal in this selection. Nevertheless:
a. Another Green World, Brian Eno
b. All Things Must Pass, George Harrison
c. Entertainment, Gang of Four
d. Army Arrangement, Fela Kuti
e. Second Edition, Public Image Ltd.

6. Tag 5: It’ll be interesting if any of these pick this up (if they haven't already and I missed it): Beth, who will surely have some good travelling music to report; Suki, who has better things to do but could maybe use a break; Bee, if she ever comes back or starts ‘blogging again; Andy, ditto (the latter clause); Betty Sue, who needs something to do while she’s ill.

Confusion in Purgatory
I've long enjoyed Cardinal Sin, if not as a clergyman, at least as a paradox, and he had some fun with the contradiction in his title and surname, too, by all accounts, welcoming guests to his home as the "house of Sin." By 1986 he became instrumental in the removal of Ferdinand Marcos, following years of "critical collaboration." If not exactly liberation theology, at least he worked to the benefit of the general population. Now if there's a bishop out there named "point" or "number" ("virtue" would be too easy).

E!
Hugh Jackman in a Woody Allen movie? And from the sound of the plot, I'm guessing he'll be the hero, too, which makes perfect sense, although no claws. No wonder he's such a trusted person.

Slow to Anger
Billy Jack’s been stewing since 1971, and may be about to make a comeback. You know the times are bad when Billy gets mad.

Activation
I’m not going to say too much about it, although there are some commenting negatively about factionalism and other intriguing issues behind the site, or otherwise, but I think keeping an eye on Labor First via their website may be worthwhile. There’re similar efforts going on over in the States with the Democrats, and I prefer working within the party rather than anything else, but a good idea is a good idea, so if positive value can be achieved here, I’ll take it. Meanwhile, I like the gecko.

Coal
Along with the on-going drought, there’s a lot of discussion over Sydney’s energy needs and plans to meet demand, which largely rely on additional coal-fired power plants. Back during the energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had us turning the lights off in rooms as we left them, and that saved us plenty, especially growing up on Long Island, where the local power company was the most expensive in the country. At the same time, appliance manufacturers were making televisions that didn’t need to warm up: even though they were turned off, they were constantly drawing electricity to reduce the time necessary for a picture to form. Right now, that’s costing consumers US$3 billion annually, eating 5% of overall electricity consumption in the States. That isn’t just televisions, of course, not anymore, and in Australia, as in many other countries, you can turn off an electrical outlet at the wall (but who goes to the power point to shut off the t.v.?), but there’s still a point to be made here. We can reduce our demands on the environment without significantly infringing our quality of life. If you switch on the t.v. and miss a few seconds of Andrew G. introducing the elimination round on American (Australian, etc.) Idol while the picture tube warms up, what have you really lost? Other than fewer brain cells? We need to demand more from ourselves and the rest will follow. (Thanks to Rebecca Blood, who got it from Curt Rosengren.)

Coal
Along with the on-going drought, there’s a lot of discussion over Sydney’s energy needs and plans to meet demand, which largely rely on additional coal-fired power plants. Back during the energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had us turning the lights off in rooms as we left them, and that saved us plenty, especially growing up on Long Island, where the local power company was the most expensive in the country. At the same time, appliance manufacturers were making televisions that didn’t need to warm up: even though they were turned off, they were constantly drawing electricity to reduce the time necessary for a picture to form. Right now, that’s costing consumers US$3 billion annually, eating 5% of overall electricity consumption in the States. That isn’t just televisions, of course, not anymore, and in Australia, as in many other countries, you can turn off an electrical outlet at the wall (but who goes to the power point to shut off the t.v.?), but there’s still a point to be made here. We can reduce our demands on the environment without significantly infringing our quality of life. If you switch on the t.v. and miss a few seconds of Andrew G. introducing the elimination round on American (Australian, etc.) Idol while the picture tube warms up, what have you really lost? Other than fewer brain cells? We need to demand more from ourselves and the rest will follow. (Thanks to Rebecca Blood, who got it from Curt Rosengren.)

Up Above My Head
Not exactly daylight, but at about six last night, walking home from Central Station, I, too, got a look at Jupiter, bright enough to stand out even with the moon right next to it. I love astrological phenomena (except when Saturn enters my star sign; it makes a mess of my horoscope).

Cinema Citations
(a) Geek
Arising from my sick bed at last, while M. was off with a friend to see a movie I had no interest in at one of the more art-house film palaces, I dragged myself up to the commercial cineplex to see the final Star Wars installment. When the first one came out, I not only went to see it more than once, I dragged friends along as well. Here's something new, I thought, even while acknowledging the debt it owed to the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, some of which I'd seen as a (younger) child when they made a reappearance on television. Sure, they were hokey, and the special effects little more than updates of the processes used to create King Kong. I didn't mind the cheesey dialog or cardboard characters, because it was entertainment only, at least up to the moment when the British census recorded so many citizens claiming "Jedi" as their religion that it would (if recognized officially) achieve the same status as much older, more traditional, church-based religions. I missed, for one reason or another, seeing Phantom Menace and Clone Wars on the big screen, but I have little doubt there'd have been any improvement even just as spectacle over DVD, but this one promised more, so I made the effort. It is indeed a big show, benefiting from the larger format, but really, it was only working for me so long as nobody was talking. I agree with every bad thing I've read about it, and all the good things. I don't mind the AU$16.00 at all. Next up: Fantastic Four.

(b) Non-Geek
While sick, M. and I rented a raft of videos to watch over the long weekend of the Queen's Birthday: one new release and a couple of weeklies. That's how I got to see The Aviator, which is a very good movie and would have been terrific on the big screen. It missed out in the last Academy Awards, but I think rightly so. While the performances are very good, and it's a good looking movie, it's flawed by its focus being in the air, rather than on the ground. When it does focus on the man and his relationships and obsessions, it's very good, but flawed by making too much of an effort on the artistic camerawork. And, of course, it ends much too soon. It feels like it ought to be a much bigger, longer movie than it ends as.

We've also now seen Bright Young Things, Stephen Fry's directorial debut picture, and it's entertaining in every way. It captures the tone of the age, both in its pleasures and its pains, managing the emotional lives of its characters very well. I can generally do without costume dramas, but since they're mostly dressed up very little different from the way high society dresses now, I think this one skirts that category well enough that it's worth seeing for the snap of its dialog. You can be forgiven for wanting to slap Adam Sims around, though; he's infuriating with money and with manuscripts. Next video: I might push for A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Guide to Healthy Living
Note to self: next year, try getting the flu shot. This has not been one of the most comfortable weeks of my life, although I've certainly had worse cases. At least, having given up cigarettes, these things don't tend to settle into my lungs the way they used to, and for the most part I was over it in four days. Now I've got to sign up for the City-to-Surf, something I probably should have gotten to with all this enforced time at home and so very little else to do, but instead I've been reading and watching (really bad) television, the highlight of which was probably Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue, a 2003 documentary of the 1970 Isle of Wight concert, plus interviews with the members of the band. After much analysis of Miles' sound at the time, the film included the entirety of Miles' set, which, though fusion isn't entirely my favorite jazz style, really swung.

Formal Dress
I stopped ironing pretty much 100% years ago, relying instead on wrinkle-proof shirts (about 60% polyester), which has worked pretty well. For special occasions, I’ll break out the iron, or when I’m wearing a shirt that isn’t wrinkle-proof and it’s just too puckered even for me, which has to be pretty bad. When that happens, it’s useful to have a guide (especially from someone who’s probably just spent a bit of time working in a laundry. Heh.) I’d do it more often, however, if I had a handy robot helper.

Is It Hot in Here?
Good news: global warming is o.k.. In fact, global warming will cause more rain, and with the extra rain and the extra CO2, the plants will grow better, so we won’t have to worry about the rainforests, either. It’s all natural, anyway, and has nothing to do with man-made emissions. The only reason we should worry about fossil fuels is that we won’t have enough to run cars and ships and trucks and planes, and we need those so we can improve the balance of trade. Strangely, Kinniworth doesn’t recommend reliance on nuclear power, or at least not uranium-based nukes, although he doesn’t recommend an alternative. Perhaps he advocates a return to sail? He generates enough hot air himself.

Economic Indexes
Housing prices will continue to decline, but while future generations may benefit, the boomers will have to sell their homes to survive retirement. And work longer, assuming the expected industrial relations “reforms” don’t leave them out of a job sooner. So much for learning to surf in my golden years.

Queue Jumping
There is no Cold War with China, so dissidents and defectors don’t have the same cache as Russians did back in the day. Or maybe the problem is that Chen Yonglin’s focus has been on Falun Gong and Tibet, both issues generally treated as nonexistent by Western nations. Maybe if he’d been in charge of following and harassing Taiwanese, it would be a different story?

China, every now and then, shows signs of opening up a bit, as in the commemorations of the Tianamen Square massacres over the weekend in Hong Kong. This is a blind, usually, and it remains very dangerous indeed to be a dissident in the last major communist nation. When a defector turns up, it seems nations dedicated to freedom would be welcoming, rather than calling up their bosses, perhaps especially when there’s newly increased concern over spying by the country the guy’s trying to escape. Or maybe not.

We know there are significant human rights violations happening in China, and China remains an antagonistic nation, despite its position in world trade. Sometimes the caution with which they are treated seems over done. If Chen Yonglin is handed back, I don’t hold much hope for his future or his family.

The Next US$100 I Spend
All of the New Yorker from February 1925 through February 2005. Really, it's just obsessiveness to buy this. But think of it. All that Thurber, for one thing.

Bali Mail Bomb
That anyone would send a contaminated package to the Indonesian embassy is despicable. That anyone would do it, as is the presumption, in response to the Corby case, is stupid. I hope the substance in the package turns out not to be harmful, but the sooner they catch the person who did this, regardless of toxicity, the better for everyone.

Update: Not pathological. The stuff in the envelope, anyway. The person who sent it? That's another story.

Outing

Yes, that is M., in among the Project Greenlight final 10.

Harmful
Human Events Online, a conservative “weekly” published on the internet, outlines the ”Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries”, including (of course) The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, Quotations from Chairman Mao, and Das Kapital, going on to list – and remember, they’re conservatives - The Kinsey Report (largely because it reports on homosexual experiences of adult males); Democracy and Education by John Dewey, because Clinton’s education followed the format advocated in the book; The Feminine Mystique, because Betty Friedan reportedly slept with Robert Oppenheimer; The Course of Positive Philosophy, because Auguste Comte didn’t believe in God; Beyond Good and Evil, because Nietzsche didn’t believe in God, either (and they go on to reassert that the Nazi’s used his philosophy is setting up their political system, whereas most people with any awareness of the link are also aware that its was Nietzsche’s sister’s rewriting of his material that the Nazi’s used); and John Maynard Keynes General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, because it advocated big government and deficit spending (leaving us to wonder what they think of their boy, George II).

The Honorable Mentions include Coming of Age in Samoa, Origin of Species, Unsafe at Any Speed, Silent Spring, and Freud’s Introduction to Psychoanalysis, to list a few of the more notable titles.

From a humor perspective, this is a stand-out list, but I wonder if anyone really thinks these books are or have been actually “damaging.” Communism in the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc countries, China, and Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, has certainly been damaging where it’s been instituted, but it’s never been instituted according to what Marx outlined, which has more in common with some of the teaching of the Catholic Church than anything Lenin or Mao put together. Feminism is certainly under a lot of fire these days, but that doesn’t invalidate what was said or done in its name, regardless of whether you forgot to have a baby. I suppose there are more people who have read Keynes than William S. Burroughs, but I’d put Naked Lunch up against any economics text as potentially damaging to one’s psyche, and if you’re going to object to Kinsey because he says 37% of adult males had had at least one homosexual experience,” you ought to be prepared to object to Burroughs, whose most famous work is often cited by young men as cluing them in to their sexuality.

Too much text for too slight a problem. Who are these people?

Sources
Not quite the romantic result everyone had been speculating on, but W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat, dobbing in Nixon for mundanely venal reasons.

There’s an argument to be made that Nixon’s resignation had no positive net effect nationally. The war didn’t end sooner and political dirty tricks are still the order of the day. Even before he’d died, however, Nixon’s legacy was subject to revision, glowing colors added to enhance his economic performance as well as his efforts in the Middle East. And there’s always China: only Nixon could go to China. But we shouldn’t forget Watergate, and the impeachment, or Salvador Allende, or Cambodia and Laos, and Vietnam, too, even if it wasn’t Nixon who got us in there in the first place. Much of contemporary American society has been harmed to one degree or another by Nixon’s own policies and actions, as well as those his administration fostered around the country and around the world.

So even though Mr. Felt didn’t get the promotion he deserved, he did the U.S. a service and deserves thanks.

Rebuilding
Paul Goldberger has an article in the New Yorker this week (sorry, it’s not on-line; you’ll have to get a subscription. Maybe if you wheedle your parents, they’ll be as nice as mine were and pay the freight) suggesting that the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in Manhattan shouldn’t be limited to putting up excess office space, as Larry Silverstein wants, or a disappointing spire, as the present designs call for, but should instead be made up of new housing stock. He also says the proposal for using the retaining wall as part of the memorial that must be included is an excellent idea, and I agree with him on both counts. And that Donald Trump’s suggestion is just more self-aggrandisement and a bad idea all around.

Downtown was already a much livelier neighborhood by the time M. and I left for Sydney, and the trend of turning office buildings into condos and coops was only increasing. And why not? The views alone would put a commanding price on the real estate. Now with prices averaging in excess of a million dollars U.S., more housing could only help. Well, all right, it could only help the prices in Manhattan to go up even further, but even so, the idea of having people actually living there, in the heart of the heart the terrorists tried to destroy, has tremendous appeal. I wouldn’t suggest any limits to the height, either; I’d love to live a hundred stories up. Fifty, anyway. O.k., 2nd, just so I can get M. into the elevator with me.

Cinema Suckers
Now that M.’s released from obligations to Project Greenlight, we can devote our leisure time to pure entertainment, except whenever I watch a movie now, I’m thinking about how many takes to get the different shots and what the director and cinematographer were thinking in setting up and executing the shots the way they did, and even noticing editing, something that was always too mysterious to even bother about, and all of that can be a bit intrusive, especially when I’m trying to follow the subtitles in a movie like 2046, which is a shame, in one sense, because the film is beautiful and a little difficult. The story’s simple enough, really, I suppose – a man who’s treated women rather shabbily and now feels trapped by his choices, trying to find a way to express and perhaps change what might have been in a way that would allow him to regain progress and purpose – but it’s complex in its delivery, a real movie-goer’s movie. This isn’t Star Wars, but a movie that leaves you thinking about its content and structure as a movie as much as just the usual narrative. There’s a Chinese scholar in the family whose impressions I’d like to hear, because I did leave the theatre wondering if the subtitles hadn’t left out important nuances, a sense I don’t always end up with from non-English experiences. Unlike Hero or Crouching Tiger (and I may yet get around to seeing House of Flying Daggers), there are such subtleties in the visuals, the colors more muted, the shots framed just off from expectations, such implications in the story that I have to wonder if language fails in translation. I’ll need to go back to the DVD’s now, to see other Wong Kar Wai movies, particularly In the Mood for Love, which has been frequently cited in reference to 2046, referring to the latter as a kind of sequel to the former.

The Labours of Howardcles
John Howard is pushing ahead on his long-standing wish to gut organized labor and leave the unions for dead. From his strike-breaking days on the Patricks wharves – and earlier – he’s been looking for ways to reform Australia’s industrial relations conditions in favour of management vs. workers, and with his pending control of the Senate, his agenda looks likely to begin in earnest. Read the Australian’s editorial carefully to see Howard’s intentions: reducing workers’ recourse to unfair dismissal protection - a way of allowing businesses to hire more workers, or does it make it easier to make unreasonable demands in exchange for lower wages? Oh, yes, the AIRC won’t be setting minimum wages now; that’ll be handled by a new, separate agency, one that will work within the scope of “economic conditions” – whose? Does that mean in a robust economy with low interest rates, wages can go down? Does that mean in a weak economy, when businesses are struggling, wages can go down? “By reducing the number of issues covered by industry-wide awards, people in individual enterprises are given more power over their own affairs,” says the editorial, but doesn’t that really mean that workers have fewer protections? Isn’t “people in individual enterprises” really “business owners who dislike the awards system”? “Why employers with 100 staff will be exempted from the unfair dismissal laws, but those with 101 are not, is hard to fathom,” but only to The Australian, who would prefer the elimination of such law entirely. Howard presents his reforms as cleaning out the industrial relations Augean stable, but he’s just shovelling manure.

Bye, Voyager
Wrong movie. Really, the circumstances call for this one to be referenced. Voyager I has officially passed beyond the solar system, sending a farewell transmission of its transition across the heliospheric boundary. (Additional pop-culture references: Starman, in which Jeff Bridges comes to earth because of Voyager's greeting card contents, and By Any Other Name, that episode of Star Trek in which Kirk et al. are hijacked beyond the galactic boundary.)

One Door Closes
The three finalists have been selected for Project Greenlight Australia, and M. is not among them - the bastards.

The screening was an entertaining event. Slated for 6:30 sharp, the invited families and friends (and a selection of the top fifty and top hundred from the previous rounds) were lined up outside the velvet ropes along the green carpet, where we waited and waited for the arrival of the contestants, vox pop'd by the documentary crew, who also took the opportunity to shoot some POV footage while we clapped, cheered, and set off our camera flashes for some reality filler. M. was ushered through first, looking terrific, followed by each of the others one at a time. While they posed for stills, the rest of us headed into the theatre and our assigned seats. Our seats were right up the front, which was unfortunate in that the clips were a bit hard to see. Fifteen minutes or so of exposition, including a diatribe on the perilous state of Australian cinema by the head of Movie Network (fair enough, when the top arthouse movie can't make enough to cover its costs and the top commercial release is such dreck that it can't either), and much thanking of the last minute participation of Microsoft (who added a $5K one-off prize for the best clip; pretty sweet, but we didn't win that either). We got a montage of the 3-minute bio clips, some of which were very inventive, and then the screen assignments, 3-minute scenes from each contestant's script.

M.'s scene was top-notch. It didn't have special effects, as a couple of them did, and it didn't have "sound design," which is what some of them had in place of the music you weren't allowed to use, but it played well, looked good - better in fact than some - and got a really good reception from the audience. The inventive title sequence drew appreciative noises around the theatre, making the hard work by Ingrid and Thomas and M.'s Director of Photography, Dom Egan, worthwhile. That shot near killed us all to get, but worked beautifully.

The Microsoft prize went to the clip with the most flash, and the final three - Solo, a crime drama; Heidi, which isn't about a little Swiss orphan; and Case - all exhibited talent and ambition.

Drinks and snacks in the lounge afterward, at 9 p.m. after all the speeches and so forth, and by God we were all starving. Not that even one thing that came through the door was vegetarian, of course, so by 11:00, when they chased us all from the theatre, everyone was pretty well done in.

Thi isn't the end of M.'s script, of course. Movie Network retains the option on it through the end of the year, and having made it this far, there's the potential for grant money for development and the possibility for production just on the credibility achieved. We may yet see this project come to fruition. And if she can manage another script, there's next year's contest, too.

Ready to Rumble
Tonight we find out if M. advances to the next round in the filmmaking competition. She's been in lock-down for 24 hours already along with her fellow contestants in the final 10, sequestered in a hotel in Rushcutters Bay where the documentary part of Project Greenlight is underway. She and the producers and everyone's guests head over to Fox Studios for a screening of the 3-minute scenes of all the contestants, followed by the announcement of who goes on to the next round. If M. advances into the final 3, she stays in the hotel two more nights, interviewing with the producers (and apparently Pia Miranda and Sam Worthington, two fine Australian actors, who have joined the panel at this stage, presumably to provide their own perspective, although I tease M. that they're there because they've already been selected as the leads in her script). As much as I'm looking forward to tonight's "green carpet" event, the prospect of the announcement is a little nerve-wracking. M., of course, is suffering most from this, and as the only one of the two of us to have seen the other contestants' video bio's, perhaps more understanbly so. She tells me the quality and content of some of these far outshine her own, not that I believe it. Besides, it's more about the script, in the end, and hers is right up there on all the measures.

I'm saving my Donna Karan suit for the premiere in December.

Calling Mr. Smith
The Senate is going to the floor over Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown. Harry Reid is calling for support. There's been a lot of debate over Frist's going "nuclear" over judicial nominations, but this isn't about whether or not filibustering is just a rule, and it's not about judges being entitled to a straight yes or no vote, and it's not even really about the role of the Senate to advise and consent to Presidential nominations. This is about power: who's got it and who's entitled to use it. Bill Frist believes the Republicans have all the power and that the Democrats should just shut up while he and Bush revise the governance of the country. That's not what an opposition is for, and the GOP only have a majority, much different from being in total control. Frist's extremist cohorts may muster the vote to push through on these candidates, but what they really want is to control the vote when the next Supreme Court vacancies occur, and there's going to be one sooner rather than later. Rehnquist may just be waiting for the opportunity at this point to ensure his successor - we already know how political he is. Fight the power.

Art and About
Friday, my employers sponsored a "renewal day" for the office staff. This is an annual event, a kind of retreat, and a variety of options are presented to allow the employees to refresh their spirits, in contemplation or in more active endeavours. I was too late for the bushwalk this year (and missed out entirely last year, due to one thing and another at home), but this year had a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where we visited two exhibitions in the presence of a Uniting Church minister doing his PhD in Art History. This was followed by lunch at the Buena Vista Cafe, located at the top of the law courts building just above Hyde Park, and a trip to the New South Wales Art Gallery, where we were treated to the Archibalds.

Our first stop at the MCA was to see a retrospective of Mona Hatoum, a Palestinian artist, largely working in video, but also sculpture and performance. Very confronting in its content throughout, especially in its focus on identity issues, Ms. Hatoum's work is dark and violent, transforming everyday objects and experiences into objects requiring a thoughtful response to modern life and the marginalization of various persons of our world society, whether exiles, refugees, women, or the lower classes.

Rosemary Laing's photographs also work in a transformative mode, but are more, perhaps, subtly manipulative. Famous for her "floating brides" series, she's done much more interesting work, to my mind, although the brides do have a resonance of the iconography of the Christian martyrs. The carpets in the forest aren't even the best of her work, but are certainly the most playful. It's her other landscape juxtapositions, however, that stand out for me, showing off not only her painter's eye for composition and color, but also displaying her acknowledgement of the drive to domesticate the natural world lest it overwhelm us with its enormity and strangeness, which itself tells of our dislocation from our essential being.

Completing our tour of current art, along with a few dozens of others, we took a quick trip through the '05 Archibald prize entries, exhibited along with the Wynne, Sulman, and Photographic Portrait prizes. The winner of the Archibald, the annual competition for portraiture paintings, John Olsen's "Self Portrait Janus Faced" has been controversial (as usual with this prize - last year's pencil drawing of the actor David Gulpilil caused a stir for not having been painted, for example), but I think it was perhaps indeed the most worthy entry, although I also considered Ben Quilty's "Beryl" a remarkable work of great distinction. The other prizes had their stand-outs, too, not least being the photograph "Ali and Rahma" by Cassandra Mathie, and not just because it's a photo of two refugees from Darfur, Sudan, but because it captures in their eyes, their stances and bearing, their experience, both there and here, what it is to pick up and leave and adapt and perhaps never return, perhaps never be able to relinquish the past because never be able to pick up a future for longer than day-by-day. This, like the others did, is what art does best, despite our guides' suggestion that art has changed somehow in its role, rather than in how it accomplishes its task, the content and techniques used.

So my renewal day option was a success overall. I actually feel enhanced in my spirit from an outing with the arts.

Budgets
Peter Costello presented this year’s budget in Parliament last night, and it looks like lobster and champagne for everyone with a corner office. Again. Tax cuts at the upper reaches of income exceed those granted to the middle class and the poor by a significant factor, with the idea that this will help the economy to stay as robust as it has been. Unfortunately, just because the already wealthy get to keep more of their income there isn’t a correlative effect in terms of job-creation. Granted, if I can afford a new car or to renovate my kitchen, that helps (momentarily) keep automobile manufacturers in profitability or to give a tradesman a couple of days’ work, but the trickle-down theory of economics has been thoroughly discredited, even by its creators, so if anyone expects a top-end tax cut to create a new auto plant or to help gyprockers make ends meet, well, that must be why you voted for Howard (or Bush for that matter; except in his case it’s also because you want to be sure your children learn creationism over evolution at school). M. & I, for example, are living pretty close to the bone these days, and we stand to increase our take-home pay over the next two years from 1st July by less than AU$1,000, even after my next award increase, next year. It’ll pay for a few coffees, but it’s sure not going to help with the bills.

To be fair, I congratulate the Liberals with running a surplus; that’s no mean feat. I think, however, that there’s more to the budget than what you don’t spend. There’s also how you spend. I’m not going to kick over paying taxes, but if the government’s going to give it back, I’d like to see some substantial relief, for the poor and the middle class. We are, after all, the ones who carry the rest of the population, not the other way around. And while the government guts Medicare, reneging on its promises to ease that burden, they’re also making it harder to sustain private care coverage. In the end, these tax cuts amount to a brief caress administered in the middle of a beating.

They Said They’d Email Me
Arianna Huffington’s Post is up and running, in case anyone’s interested. They said they’d keep me up-to-date, but I found out via Metafilter. I should be put out, but it's a small thing, and I remain interested, at least for now. It has, after all, a pretty good California cast of contributors: Larry David, Mike Nichols, David Mamet, and various others of more or lesser stature among the punditry and the entertainment classes. Nothing particularly stand-out, except maybe Walter Cronkite grousing about the Democrats (he thinks they need two conventions: one to pick their nominee every four years, and one to decide what they generally want to talk about).

The Autumn Leaves
This morning, by the time I got to Lidcombe (maybe earlier; I was reading, so I didn’t notice until then), there was heavy fog across western Sydney, and I knew autumn had arrived. Sure, our apartment was a little chilly over the weekend, but it’s always cool in there, for the most part, because of it’s largely southeastern exposure, and standing on Glebe Point Road Saturday night waiting for a bus in just a tee shirt was cooler than I’d anticipated it would be, but something about the fog was the confirmation my brain needed to acknowledge the change of seasons. Probably it’s a result of no other visual cues ingrained. No leaves changing color, and I can’t trust leaf detritus on the ground, as the continuing drought makes that pretty much a given throughout the year. The presence or absence of pelicans and swans in the upper reaches of the Parramatta River don’t trigger any migrating fowl indicators for me, as a V of honking Canada geese would. Now that the temperatures appear to have settled well below 30 degrees, perhaps going running on Fridays won’t leave me gasping quite so badly. I want my 40 minute 8K back, too, but that may wait for winter.

What’s Wrong with Feminism
Everywhere I turn there are men and women slagging the feminists. Women don’t want men who are too feminine, the way they were in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, I hear. And I hear that women can’t have it all and are angry that feminism fooled them into trying. And I hear that feminism isn’t to be credited for increasing female representatives in government. Thank God for politicians like Julia Gillard, then, who knows perfectly well that the battles of women for equality aren’t over and have always been more complex than the chattering nabobs of the right wing punditry would acknowledge. This isn’t about “having it all,” a phrase that the media and politicians seized upon to implausibly describe the implausibility of feminism; it’s about a society that won’t support half its population to participate beyond the track worn in the carpet between crib and kitchen. Some women want to be mums and some want to be lawyers (or even Prime Minister) and some want to do both without being penalized for either, but instead get paid equally for equal work and credited appropriately for their efforts at home, regardless of how they choose to distribute their ambitions. Fair enough, I say, but then I was raised by a mother and father who valued each other’s contributions to the family and the world at large, who could understand feminism as more than bra-burning or whinging. The anti-feminist backlash now underway reminds me of the kind racial politics that wants no notice taken of race differences, the anti-multiculturalism that’s more often a disguise for bigotry than it is for the inclusiveness it claims. Virginia Haussegger has a point, but I’d be cautious of the critique of feminism itself. I’m sorry she feels cheated of having children, but the struggle for equality didn’t force that choice on her, and the problems of equality are not so simply reduced to child vs. childlessness. The argument may need to evolve, but feminism’s goals remain worthy and not yet fulfilled.

Revenue Sharing
I signed up for the Google ads, but nobody’s clicking on them but me (and why would they? Look at them. Pope memorabilia led the list for weeks, and now it’s lots of WWII trash.) I’ve been trying to use Email Cash and Pure Profile and A. C. Nielsen to get at least rewards – Pure Profile paid out $35 a few weeks ago (and I think they’re mad at me for taking such a paltry amount of cash at my earliest opportunity, but I really needed it. O.k., for drinking a beer with my Democrats Abroad fellow travellers), but overall this just isn’t getting me anywhere. Apparently what I need is a t-shirt. I’ll figure out a logo and a clever saying and get in touch with Café Press right away. Tomorrow, maybe.

A Judge and Jury of Your Peers
I’m disappointed that Lynndie England has had her guilty plea thrown out and a mistrial declared. Her plea sounds like the only bit of honesty to come out of the Abu Ghraib abuses. “You can’t have a one-person conspiracy,” the judge declared, but you can if the other parties involved aren’t admitting their guilt, and despite his testimony, England’s erstwhile boyfriend, Charles Graner was convicted. His excuses, that the photos were for “legitimate training purposes” and that the leash in the photos “slipped” from the prisoner’s shoulder to around his neck, are obvious and stupid lies and weren’t believed in his own trial. England’s admission to wrongdoing isn’t contingent on anyone else admitting to their own. To declare a mistrial is a miscarriage of justice. Colonel Pohl is not worthy of his post. We can only hope that Lieutenant General Metz will do the right thing.

Dr. Strangelove
(Or, How George Bush Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb)
It’s natural to steal from Kubrick under the circumstances. Nobody knows what North Korea wants – because they have no reason other pure madness to want nuclear weapons – but it’s worrying that the present U.S. administration appears so intent on actually using the bomb, let alone developing new ones. So when that death’s head Condoleezza Rice starts emphasizing America’s “significant . . . deterrent capability” against North Korea, my trained duck-and-cover response starts to kick in. Never, throughout the Cold War, was I convinced that Russia would fling its ICBM’s at the U.S., or that we would initiate a nuclear war ourselves. The North Koreans, however, present a much different problem. They’re not capable of the levels achieved by the USSR and the US – mutually assured destruction – so while they now may have a nuclear warhead missile with some frightening reach, I’d be more worried for the South Koreans and the Japanese than for California. It’s clear, however, that deterrence isn’t a factor (or it should be clear to someone with Rice’s touted qualifications). If Kim Jong Il drops one, with such a significant number of our troops tied up in Iraq, I have little doubt that Bush wouldn’t hesitate to respond in kind and in greater quantity. North Korea needs to be de-escalated as a nuclear threat, but there must be better options than we’re hearing from Rice and Bush and Co. beyond how many people get to sit at the negotiating table or how many bombs we can drop.

Chairman Dean
Doctor Howard Dean came to a special meet-up of Democrats Abroad Australia last night for an impromptu address to the faithful. It was a terrific turn-out, easily surpassing the election night (morning, here) watch in November.

Dr. Dean was, as expected, an excellent speaker, and we’re all grateful to him for taking time on his vacation to speak with us and to the organizers for their hard work in setting it all up and making it work so well (and to Bar Broadway for hosting the event).

The passion and commitment Dr. Dean brings to his role as Chairman of the DNC is evident, and if he is as effective a leader as I hope, the Democrats will find themselves better able to contend with the Republicans – especially the far-right element that has come to dominate that party – than we have previously. Dean’s grass roots mobilization skills and plans will give us something to rely on other than the powerful charisma of a Bill Clinton. Clinton’s sincerity was perhaps his greatest strength, which is fine for a one-off, but more broadly unsustainable, leaving Congress and the state and local offices vulnerable. Dean’s plans to take on every election at every level offer to spread that strength around and give the American people the opportunity to see a better choice for themselves and their children than they’re being offered at present, and before long they’ll make that choice.

Too many Americans now live without the aspirations of previous generations, forced out by the greed, the selfishness of others from even the most basic economic circumstances that would otherwise allow them to own their own home, help their children through university, retire securely. Republicans are cutting away health care just when it’s becoming more and more difficult to afford, instead of making it possible for everyone to see a doctor when they need one. Too many Americans now have to work harder longer than ever before and still can’t make ends meet, can’t be home to raise their children, and this has to change. The Republicans aren’t doing the job, because they’re too focussed on cronyism, cutting taxes for their friends at the expense of the middle class and the poor. The party of fiscal responsibility is the party of fear now, but we know about that, especially as Democrats we know: it’s the only thing we really have to fear at all.

Watching Dr. Dean last night was like witnessing Jesus in the temple whipping the money-changers. I came out more energized than I’ve been in weeks.

Harrison Bergeron
Dragging everyone down to your level doesn’t make you an intellectual, and hiring a White House staff member to provide recommendations on altering the editorial content of PBS doesn’t eliminate bias, especially when the review is based on one program’s invited guests. Why are so many Republicans afraid of intellectuals? I see this move as not dissimilar, in fact just an offshoot from, the drive to demonize university professors and, more recently, all teachers (although it appears English teachers especially, perhaps because they teach children to read and to think critically).

It wasn’t so long ago that various people who might otherwise have been relied upon for a liberal viewpoint were themselves targeting the so-called elitists in media and education, driving the “politically correct” usages into public consciousness, causing a general backlash that continues today, albeit pretty nearly exclusively from the far right. The main difference now, however, is that the purpose isn’t to elevate discourse, to be inclusive (howsoever far the arguments may have been exclusive originally), but to deny equality even while pretending to argue for it. You’ll hear claims that gays and lesbians don’t want special attention drawn to them at the same time as you’ll see a referendum on a ballot to enact legislation against gay marriage, or arguments that the 70-cents-on-the-dollar wage discrepancies between what women earn versus what men earn has become mythic, that women are doing better than ever, so they don’t need any special protections. You’ll hear someone say: why can’t they just be Americans instead of African-Americans or Native Americans or Chinese Americans (and you’ll hear the same argument in countries in Europe and in Australia), but you won’t hear an acknowledgement of centuries of oppression or discrimination, and certainly not an apology for any specific acts carried out in the past. No welfare, no pension, no “hand-outs.” The argument will often turn on “levelling the playing field,” making opportunity possible for everyone. But too often in practice what this amounts to is dragging down more of us, fencing off opportunities already arrogated to an elite much different from those being disparaged, those who argue most pointedly from an opposing perspective, that raising up the disadvantaged is a better method of benefiting all of society.

There is no “liberal bias” in the media any more than there is a conservative bias. There is the New York Times and there is the Wall Street Journal. If you look more broadly around the country, you’ll find a more conservative editorial content generally. In Australia, there’s the Fairfax papers and the Murdoch papers, and both publish content – editorial and news – from the opposite ends of the political spectrum, while otherwise attempting an open minded approach to the stories and opinions they print. PBS’s content similarly addresses society broadly, and there are some who see things more narrowly, so they perceive the programming there as too left wing. The same fight is happening here over the ABC, and in England over the BBC. We needn’t be surprised: look who we’ve elected to the highest positions in our nations.

Leadership Blues
John Howard wants to be king. Anyway, that’s what I might think if I was Peter Costello. Poor guy’s been waiting for a chance to take the top spot in the Liberal party for years, but Howard’s a tenacious politician, internally as well as between the parties in an election. His line about staying leader for as long as the party wants him was running a bit thin last October, and now that he wants a go at a fifth term, I suppose it feels that way to Costello, too. Well, if the Liberals want him, barring age and health problems, they can keep him. I don’t see Costello mounting a successful leadership challenge unless something goes very seriously wrong nationally, and nobody wants that.

T.V. News
First of all, who names an award for hawking up phlem? Oh, it’s not pronounced that way? Low-ghee. O.k., never mind.

It says a lot about the current state of Australian television, however, that Rove McManus has won the top award three years running. The show has its moments, sure, but it’s very little more than an hour-and-a-half of sophomoric jokes interspersed with celebrities shilling for their latest output. I did like that they were able to get Kirribilli House to flick their lights the other week. The way Rove rides the PM, it had to be the live-in staff, though.

Current Cinema
I haven’t read the book, although I understand it was hugely popular, but M. and I went to see Three Dollars over the weekend, preferencing Australian drama over even what was probably the last chance we had of seeing Million Dollar Baby in the cinemas. I like supporting the Australian film industry, so long as I’m not having to go see any of the usual crass culture-clash comedies featuring Paul Hogan, and David Wenham, for all that he’s a funny-looking bloke who sometimes reminds me more of a stunned mullet than anything else, is a very good actor. Frances O’Connor, with whom I’m less familiar, was also terrific, better than Wenham, in this outing anyway, but for all the performances being good, and the movie being directed (except the pacing is slow as a wet week) and shot well, it doesn’t leave me with an overall positive impression on the way out. I think the problem lies in the script, which is just too writerly, to literary. For all the suspension-of-disbelief problems (and they’re minor, except they add up), there are only a few times when you aren’t hearing the book, translated straight to the screen, without the interpretation that make that transition usually work. Maybe that’s because the author, Elliot Perlman, co-wrote the screenplay, or maybe it’s just a novel that wouldn’t have translated well in the first place. I’d have to read it to be sure, and I’m not inclined to do that now. Next time we splurge, however, it’s my call, and I say: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and I’m not even a fan of the books).

Why “Social Security”?
Now that the GOP plans for Social Security are being clarified beyond privatization, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that this fight is more important than whether the public’s money starts getting pumped into Wall Street brokerage accounts. I caught a bit of the News Hour on SBS over the weekend, and the point was made that this program is named for its value: it’s “social” in that everyone is covered, rich and poor alike; and provides “security” for all without favoritism or discrimination. So what does Bush want to do? He wants to make it welfare. It sounds good to say that benefits would remain intact for the less well-off, but what’s really taking place is that Social Security would then be positioned as no different than any other welfare program, making it vulnerable to dissolution altogether down the line.

Right now, taxable earnings are capped at $90,000. Raising that limit makes immediate and long-term sense, but would hit Bush’s true constituency right in their most sensitive spot: the dollars that separate them from being middle class, which happens to be where the bulk of Social Security money will be spent over the next forty to fifty years. The top 1%, the ones benefiting most from Bush’s taxation policies, don’t want their money spent on anyone else but themselves, and while they can feel virtuous when it’s spent on the poor, they see no value in helping out the middle. Social Security isn’t just a feel-good program, however. It’s meant for everyone, because everyone, if only in theory, is vulnerable, and may someday need help. Let’s keep the emphasis where it belongs. Let’s keep society secure.

Movie News
For those of you keeping track at home, Friday I took the day off to be gaffer, grip, and general dogsbody to M.'s film shoot. For a 3-minute scene, there was a surprising amount of work as well as a considerable amount of time just standing around, not just for me, but for the lovely and talented actors; less so for the other members of the crew, let alone the director (M., of course) and her Director of Photography. Who would have thought there was so much work in setting up lights and making them shine in the right colors in the right directions (and indirections)? I spent my time mostly standing holding one thing or another, generally being quiet, or shooting a bit of ancillary video for M.'s PGLA "diary," which she is contractually obiligated to provide to the producers for their documentary show. M.'s offered me a credit on the 3-minute scene, but I've declined. Having picked up lunch, helped her read through the contracts, held gels over the lights, and so forth, there'd be too many jobs to list in the time available. Let the ones who do this for a living get the credit for their work. I don't even have a union card.